Pixel 9 Setup Process Gets Several Big Upgrades

As Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL orders arrive, the setup process will begin where you take all that’s on your old phone and bring it to the new. For this launch, Google has done a bunch of improvements to the setup process. Like, not even kidding here – there are some really cool things that happen now when you setup a new Pixel phone.

Googler Paul Dunlop took to the hellsite Twitter to share details on their “biggest release ever” as it relates to the Setup and Data Transfer process. One of the coolest new features is the ability to initiate transfer of data at any point down the road, not just at setup or within the few days. There’s more too, so let’s run through a list of changes.

According to Dunlop, here’s what’s new in the Pixel setup process:

• Transfer data later: When jumping into Settings, you’ll find a new option called “Back up or copy data” that gives you the option to backup data or set that up if you haven’t already. The other option for “Copy data” is new and does indeed let you “Bring data from another device.” It should bring up the device you used to copy from previously. This could come in handy if you run into issues during setup, plus you can transfer from that old device “as many times as you like.”
• Express setup: There’s new Express option when setting up that tells you an estimated time for when you could be done and up and running on the new device. You can still Customize if you want, but Express uses cloud data to try to hurry up the process. It uses Google Photo backups as a reference, for example, to skip backing up stuff that’s already in your Google Photos account. This should “massively reduced the time” it takes to transfer data.
• Backup in setup: Within setup, a screen for backup settings should show up now too. This lets you take that step to get your device backing things up from the get-go.
• Messages transfer is upgraded: Transferring from Messages to the new phone is “more robust,” which means you’ll get a “carbon copy of your Messages history” when you transfer from a cable or WiFi.
• More settings preferences retained: In general, you should see even more system settings, permissions, and notification preferences moved to the new phone than ever. That should also mean more apps that stay logged-in, rather than you having to individually log back into everything.
• Multiplexing transfers with WiFi x cable: If you initiate a WiFi transfer to start, you can connect a USB-C cable mid-transfer and the data speed transfer goes to a maximum speed. That’s super neat.
• Other upgrades: Dunlop mentions that more eSIM carriers should soon be available, WiFi data transfers are faster and more reliable in general, and Quick Share and Car Crash Detection can be activated during setup.

All cool stuff, right? The Pixel 9 experience really is next-level from Google. I hope you are all enjoying your devices so far.

// @pauldunlop